1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compact metering assembly which is adapted to be mounted in a compartment on a tank truck/trailer, which is designed to take up a minimum of space and which includes a measuring system for measuring the amount of liquid pumped into the tank truck/trailer from an outside receptacle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore a tank truck/trailer for picking up liquid from a number of different sites, such as a milk truck for picking up milk from various farmers, had mounted on a tank truck/trailer, in a small compartment provided therefor, a pump, a motor for the pump and a hose connected to the farmer's bulk cooling or simply cooler.
The amount of milk delivered to the tank truck was determined by first inserting a measuring stick in the milk cooler to determine the level of milk in the cooler. Then an operator would pump the milk out of the bulk tank cooler into the truck and proceed to the next bulk tank cooler and make a similar measurement.
The height of milk in the milk cooler is directly related to the number of gallons in the bulk milk cooler. In this respect, the measuring stick was calibrated in gallons per unit height of the milk cooler.
This technique worked satisfactorily but was cumbersome and awkward. In this respect, a clean measuring stick had to be available and the quantity of milk in each milk cooler had to be measured and entered on a log. Then all entries on the log for each farmer had to be added up to determine the amount of milk received from all the farmers.
Accordingly, it was desirable to provide an automated mechanism for pumping liquid, such as milk, from receptacles such as bulk milk coolers into a tank truck/trailer through a flow meter whereby the flow meter would measure the amount of milk received into the tank truck/trailer. Such metering assemblies, including a flow meter, have been proposed and utilized in the past.
However, such prior metering assemblies were bulky and did not fit conveniently into the existing compartments on tank trucks/trailers. As a result, special modifications had to be made to the tank/trailer to mount the metering assembly therein or elements of the metering assembly were carried separately and connected to the rear of the tank/truck instead of being individually mounted in the compartment.
As will be described in greater detail, the metering assembly of the present invention provides a compact metering and pumping assembly which includes a pump, an inlet hose, an air eliminator vessel, a flow meter and a strainer assembly conveniently and compactly mounted to each other and within a conventional existing compartment on a tank truck/trailer.